British Isles Cruise Review 6/5-6/17

[RRFPresident]

 

Inside the Lookout Tower:

 

Poison Garden:

 

I thought this sign was funny if you read it as "yes, the rocks are close and there's the gift shop over there":

[RRFPresident]

 

Dungeon:

 

While many of our Scotland ports had bagpipers serenading our arrivals and departures, Cobh chose to really send us off in style with a multiple piece brass band and women standing around in long dresses and parasols waving to the crowd.

[RRFPresident]

After dinner back on board, we checked out the theater in hopes of finding that magician Brett Sherwood had made it onto the ship. Stopped one of the technicians as he passed by and he explained that the magician wouldn’t be until the following night. Not wanting to see the regular production show, we split up so Dad could play Texas Hold ‘Em in the casino. I went back to the cabin to check out the sunset and grab some pictures around the ship. This night was the Piazza Party and they had strung up a net from one end of the upper railings to the other holding a ton of blown up balloons to be dropped later during the party. We were elsewhere when the party started so I didn’t get the chance to get pictures of the balloons actually dropping.

 

 

We met back up at 9:30PM in Exploreers to attend the Liars Club show. This edition featured a panel of Cruise Director Kelvin Joy, Deputy Cruise Director Chris, and Mark. If you’ve never seen this game before, the premise is that obscure words are given and each panelist gets to declare what they think the word means in hopes that you in the audience would believe them. I’ve seen them count the audience response by hand or sign raising, applause, and this time was based on how many slips of paper each panelist received from guests as they walked up to deliver it to the person they thought was telling the truth. Then the host would have the person who really told the truth stand up and reveal themselves. One of the words turned out to mean the dance that women do in order to pull up a pair of pantyhose. The word escapes me but the image of Kelvin Joy pulling out a pair of pantyhose to pull on over his pants to show off the aforementioned dance is one that will stay with me forever. He continued to wear the hose even while people came down to hand over their little slips of paper. Several guys acted like they were going to give their slips to one panelist only to hand it to another at the last minute. After one guy did that, Kelvin waited until the guy’s back was turned and then rushed up behind him mocking behind his back all while still wearing the pantyhose. Yet another moment where I wished I hadn’t chosen to return my camera back to the cabin as we were front and center for that image. Poor Mark was turning red from laughing so hard and was close to falling out of the chair. One of Mark’s definitions (who also performed his one man variety show during the cruise reminding me of “Just Jack” from Will & Grace), had him referencing being a boy scout in his youth. Kelvin laughed and muttered under his breath that he thought Mark would have been a girl guide instead.

 

 

Next up is our final port, St. Peter Port, in the Channel Islands. Thank you for reading my review thus far and all your kind and helpful comments.

[RRFPresident]

We are doing the same tour in Belfast as you did. I just wondered which side of the bus you were sitting on for the tour, as it was obviously the side to be to see things, if they were leaning over you to take photos?

 

 

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If you look at it from the point of view of standing in the aisle facing the front of the bus, I was on the left and Dad was on the right. He took the shots of the IRA fence murals as we pulled over on the left side of the road for people to get off but everything else was me.

[marylizcat]

If you look at it from the point of view of standing in the aisle facing the front of the bus, I was on the left and Dad was on the right. He took the shots of the IRA fence murals as we pulled over on the left side of the road for people to get off but everything else was me.

 

Thanks very much for your help. I am reading your review with great interest! We are booked for the Blarney Castle tour too.

 

 

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[PathfinderEss]

Great review and loved your pictures.:)

[RRFPresident]

Our last port day and our last tender port. We started getting our notices about disembarkation and our luggage tags a few days before we actually needed any of it so that was sort of a buzz kill. I know we’re just this week’s passengers to the staff but we didn’t need a reminder well in advance of the cruise nearing its end.

 

Today was Father’s Day and several cabins had fliers touting a Father’s Day spa special in their mailboxes. We never got the flier. I don’t know why unless it was geared toward people who had previously used the spa. We passed through the spa to visit the gym for a weigh in (which the scale read about 15 lbs less than my home scale) and commented to the spa employee at the front desk about not getting the flier but she just laughed nervously.

 

St. Peter Port is the capital of the island of Guernsey which is part of the Channel Islands. While they are part of the UK, they are an independent nation in that they govern themselves. I share that with you because our excursion guide was adamant about imparting that factoid onto us during our time with him. Nothing wrong with a little pride in your home country though.

 

We ended up getting on more of a charter boat like they’d use for classes or school field trips simply by chance as we traveled to the tenders as a group after meeting up for the excursion. For this day, one of the few choices available when we were planning excursions was the German Occupation Museum & Underground Hospital. This was also the day that we never saw a tour booklet like the others so we figured the choices were so limited that everything must have sold out before the cruise.

 

From our bus ride to the hospital:

 

Our tour guide was also our bus driver. He told Dad that he does this run several times a week. The bus was very small though not full. There were many pleas for the air conditioner to be turned on but our guide was so insistent on finishing his speech that he’d keep launching into more and more explanation despite people’s audible moans of complaint. He was also very fond of passing back pictures of the area and the history of the museum so much so that even the really interested people were getting tired of seeing these pics. This excursion was more up Dad’s alley as far as personal interest but it was really the only thing on the list that interested either of us.

 

The Princess website description of the excursion says it is a non guided visit to the Occupation Museum but our guide stayed with us the entire time offering a running commentary.

 

 

There was a lot of empty corridors and it was definitely dark and damp since you’re technically underground even though to enter you walk right through the front door. There is lighting lining the path our guide led us on and there is an employee at the entrance. I’m guessing though that the employee would not act as guide should you decide to visit on your own. There are signs posted for directions as well as explanations so a guide is really not needed.

 

Our guide:

[RRFPresident]

There are various mannequin and prop set ups throughout to show what life was like. Nearly all of these are behind bars and chain fencing that cover a small opening onto the scene.

 

Not such a great set up when the picture taking obsessed have re-appeared on this tour. One woman was filming the entire tour and would stand there running her little camcorder back and forth, look back at you waiting your turn, and resume filming. First rule of group tour picture taking – step up to the item, take your picture, and step back to let someone else do the same. It’s great that you got a nice shot but no one else wants a picture of your back blocking the space. Simple common courtesy. Minor pet peeve of mine, stepping off the soapbox. Also just noticed that the Princess.com description says no photo/video opportunity.

 

As it was, the darkness of the tunnels gave me a lot of pictures of brightly lit chain fencing in the beginning. At one point, our guide led us to an escape shaft that was this round little room with a ladder leading up to ground level. The room was about 2/3rds the size of an elevator and we all know how cruise passengers like to fit just one more in those. We all took turns stepping in a few at a time to view the area, get our pictures, and step out. One minor design flaw in the way this escape shaft is labeled. There is a big sign as you enter the shaft that warns “Mind your head.” Apparently there needs to be one on the inside as well because just as I stepped up to enter, a tall older gentleman was coming out and bashed his forehead right against the top of the door frame. Thankfully he seemed okay despite one of the best Homer Simpson impressions of “Doh!” I’ve ever seen from someone in reaction to their hit.

 

Looking up the escape shaft:

 

The path leading back to the employee at the front desk was lined with display cases featuring newspaper accounts, weaponry, and supplies.

[RRFPresident]

 

Dad's favorite, the secret radio transmitter:

 

Once we had all had our fill of the underground hospital, our driver/guide took us to the Occupation Museum. This time, he did leave us to explore on our own. The museum is 2 stories but it’s more like touring someone’s house who has a lot of their antiques on display. There was only one employee on the grounds and he bounced back and forth between the front desk where there was some gift shop style merchandise sold and the kitchenette area right before you head upstairs. You can buy soft drinks, water, hot tea setup, and baked treats from the kitchenette if you can catch the sole guy working there. We walked through the museum until reaching the kitchenette area and was able to stop and purchase a couple cold drinks. There are small tables set up in the room so we took a few moments to relax. Another couple bought the hot tea setup complete with silver tray but the employee left the counter right after serving them. Saw many confused fellow passengers walk up, see those of us with drinks, and wonder how we were able to get them. Princess.com also says no photo/video opportunity but no one ever prevented us from taking photos.

 

Several models were on display outside the museum:

[RRFPresident]

 

Inside the museum:

[RRFPresident]

[RRFPresident]

[RRFPresident]

Tender ride back was on one of Princess’ regular tenders and it was so packed Dad and I had to find seats separately. The ride back was pretty rocky but it was amusing to listen to my seatmates mock the ride as if we were on Splash Mountain. This was perhaps our shortest port day as we didn’t arrive until 10AM and left by 4:30PM.

 

The one behind the two Princess tenders is what we took on the way in:

 

We chose to book an early dinner tonight so that we could make sure to catch magician Brett Sherwood’s show at 7PM. Nice to see that when calling the Dine Line and identifying ourselves, the woman on the phone said “oh 7PM as usual?” It turns out that we were seated at a waiter’s table who could give Speedy Gonzales a run for his money. Dad asked for his usual plate of melon to start and we placed the rest of our order from the menu. The waiter stepped away and was back before we knew it with our appetizers including Dad’s melon. We were amazed at how fast he was able to come back with a non menu item. The rest of our meal came just as quickly though this waiter was not as social so his standing there by his station watching us eat was a little creepier than usual. We had been meaning to try the volcano dessert from the children’s menu that we’d read so much about on the boards but were hesitant given how bad the banana supply was at breakfast. When our waiter came over to ask about dessert, we mentioned the volcano but he laughed at us dismissing the suggestion as being only for children. Rather than press the issue, we decided to try the Baked Alaska. The waiter pointed out that they had a planned Baked Alaska parade in about 15 minutes if we were willing to wait. We said sure and went on chatting amongst ourselves. I guess our waiter must have felt uncomfortable with the wait because he soon went and brought back two plates of already cut slices. The slices were already melting and nearly falling into a puddle when they arrived so they must have been sitting out a while. Unfortunately, this being our first taste of the dessert, we didn’t realize it was Neapolitan ice cream inside and Dad cut out the rectangle of strawberry in the center before eating his serving.

 

While we’re on the subject of dining room food, I was really looking forward to trying the fettuccini alfredo in the parmesan bowl. The first chance I had to try it, I also wanted to try a different entrée choice so I asked for the alfredo in appetizer size with the parmesan bowl. What arrived was a small bowl of the appetizer portion but no parmesan bowl. The pasta itself was a little disappointing as the noodles were very thin like spaghetti. Next time we dined where none of the entrees sounded good, I asked for an entrée size of the alfredo with the parmesan bowl. This time, I received a bigger bowl with a bigger portion of the same spaghetti thin noodles but in the parmesan bowl. I’m not sure if there’s a protocol for how to eat such a dish to make it more delectable. I cut up the noodles and the bowl and it just made for two different textures per bite that was not appetizing.

 

As a result of such speedy turnaround service and our earlier dining time, we had time to relax before the show. The magician’s show was pretty popular and the theatre filled up by show time. If you’re really into picture taking during the theater shows (minus of course the production shows where they ask you not to do so), I would suggest getting a seat within the first few rows on the floor level. We were sitting near center first section up and the darkness of the theater led to the darkness of my pictures. The magician’s show itself was good but only 30 minutes long.

 

Two volunteers to hold onto the bird in the box as it disappeared:

 

Cards appearing in his hands and then going into a box that had no bottom:

 

Balancing the ball on top of the scarf:

 

Invited a young lady up on stage to have her look over this "random" paper he had:

 

Then proceeded to move his hands around the paper as if it was levitating and formed it into a paper rose before having the paper catch fire and reveal a real rose he gave to the lady:

Edited July 19, 2013 by RRFPresident

[RRFPresident]

We had started packing up our suitcases before going to dinner but I was hesitant to leave our stuff spread out while Rico was in the room for evening turndown. With the unexpectedly short magician’s show, we took the extra time to go back to the room and finish packing. We set our two larger suitcases (1 for each of us) out in the hallway and kept the carry on suitcase we used for the flight to hold our fresh clothes, meds, and toiletries for the final morning.

 

The very grainy super far away pics I have of Royal Princess passing nearby on her post christening voyage are actually dated on this evening so forgive my earlier mention:

 

Our final evening sunset:

 

We headed back to the Explorers Lounge for our last game show of the trip, Princess Pyramid. The team rules were the same as trivia, or as Fab liked to say “you can have a team as few as one person and as many as six people. If you have more than six people, that’s too many and if you have less than one person, you are not here.” The premise to play was that one person sat in front of the screen on the stage and the rest of the team stood behind their own mike in front of you and the screen giving you clues to try and get you to say what was on the screen. Dad and I signed up as our own team of two and it seems like only a few other people bothered to sign up. There was also a father/son team who nicknamed themselves the ChiTown Boys that did very well. Cute to see the dad trying to get his teen son to name Pamela Anderson when he wasn’t around when Baywatch was on TV. The team that did amazingly well was a group of six that paired a family of 4 young adult kids/their friends and their mom with a couple from Taiwan. With so few teams, we each did a couple rounds. While you’re in that seat with the timer ticking down and the lights in your eyes, it’s tough to decipher the hints that the crowd was trying to yell out. At one point, Dad gave me the clue of the short guy on Fantasy Island and Deputy Cruise Director Chris nearly fell over laughing because Dad had read the word on the screen as Tattoo instead of Toto. People in the audience told me later that they had been yelling Dorothy’s dog as a clue but I couldn’t hear them.

 

Deputy Cruise Director Chris and our other cruise staff member who left when our voyage ended. I think he was originally from Brazil so if anyone of my fellow travelers on here can recall his name, I'd appreciate it:

 

What became our view every time we trekked back to our cabin from the midship elevators:

 

If we planned enough ahead to be near the aft elevators:

 

Our little closet alcove off the main hallway leading to our cabin door:

 

Being our last night, we took some final time in the casino before cashing out our accounts. Dad really wanted me to try Blackjack so much that he gave me the rest of his chips to use. I gave it a chance for about 40 minutes. As with my preferred game of slots, you go up some, you lose some. I ended up losing about 1/3 of what Dad had given me to play with. The slots didn’t really treat me well in the end either so I gave up and cashed out early rather than play till the allotment I’d set aside for gambling on this trip was used up.

 

We forced ourselves to head to bed early as we needed to be out of our rooms first thing.

[RRFPresident]

Woke up early and gathered the last of our things. As we opened the door to leave, one of Rico’s assistants was just about to open the door himself to come clean our room thinking we’d left already. We called Rico over to thank him for his efforts this past 12 days and hand over a nice tip. We made our way down to Club Fusion where the Elite/Platinum/Suite disembarkation lounge is held. Last time they checked our cruise cards before letting us enter but this time, the crew member manning the entrance was busy talking to another couple so we walked right on by. Once they replenished the refreshments, we helped ourselves to juice, muffins, and doughnuts. There was also water and coffee available. What was labeled as orange juice tasted more like grapefruit juice though. The TVs played an ongoing loop of Princess itineraries and cruise tours like a never ending commercial so by the third loop I could recite the dialogue. Was nice to watch and dream of what our next cruise could be like though as this one and its destinations were ones I never expected to be able to visit either.

 

Several zones had already been called but there didn’t seem to be much rhyme and reason to the order. One announcement would call for blue 2 for instance and the next for gold 7. Later on, we’d hear a call for gold 4 or blue 5. It wasn’t too long though for our zone to be called and we headed out. Our zone amongst the bags was across the entire space but there was plenty of wheeled carts to use. Some baggage handlers were milling around helping but we thought we’d manage with our three bags.

 

We made our way to the shuttle only losing a bag off the wheeled cart once. The staff was very good at directing people where to go once they saw the colored tags on your luggage. We boarded the bus and it took so long to wait on everyone else that Dad ran back in to use the bathroom and still had plenty of time after he came back before we left. As we left the port area, we noticed a P&O ship docked behind us.

 

Our flight out of Heathrow wasn’t until 4:30 but we were still able to check in once we got to the airport. I stayed with our carry on bag while Dad popped into a store to use up our leftover British pounds on shortbread cookies for our neighbor who’d given us a ride to the airport. It was quite the trek trying to find the business class lounge. Sent up one floor, down another, across another, back up one more, back and forth. Finally found a lounge and was turned away because it was the first class lounge. Back to playing floor zigzag central until we finally found the business class lounge. We were so early for our flight that they didn’t even have a gate assigned yet. We took the time to charge our devices, grab some lunch, and clear out our email inboxes on the free desktop computers in the lounge. About 40 minutes before our flight time, they assigned us a gate in a whole other terminal. We grabbed our stuff and took the tram to the other terminal. Was quite funny to see a group of young ladies take off running off the tram while we walked off, found an elevator, and took time to stop in another shop and use up the last of our British pounds on some candy. As we walked up to the gate, we saw the same group of young ladies running from the stairwell/escalators toward their gate.

 

We got in the business class check in line and just as we did, the whole rest of the line was made to turn around and get into the other long line because they weren’t business class. We had to push past them and were the only ones at the counter. Our flight took off close to on time if not a little early and we were landing in Baltimore by 8:40PM US time. I like to joke that we essentially went back in time since we left at 4:30PM, took an 8 hour flight, and landed at 8:40PM. Reminds me of those obnoxious middle school word problems in math class.

 

Customs was relatively painless and we were able to grab a cab home getting us there around 9:30PM. Glad to be back home but already imagining the world of possibilities that await us on our next cruise.

 

Thank you for enjoying this review and reading to the end of my long winded run on ramblings. Please feel free to ask any questions. If anyone would like to see all the 1600+ pictures I took, let me know and I’ll e-mail you the “share album” link from Shutterfly.

[Starlaker]

I have thoroughly enjoyed your journey. You write very well. Thanks for taking the time.

[baggal]

Thanks for a great, detailed review.

[flacruiser]

Great Review. Thanks.

[RRFPresident]

Thought of another funny story that I neglected to mention when I covered Cobh. With the schedule change in Dublin not coming until that evening, the Patters we were delivered that night were the ones made up before the change in Cobh arrival time. Announcements were made that the excursion staff was working to re-organize and reissue new excursion schedules but the only people that got new Patter schedules were the cruise staff.

 

We showed up to Explorers per the old Patter in hopes of morning trivia only to find that Mark was announcing some other class. A lot of people were confused and Mark consulted a tiny printout before announcing that if we were here for trivia, it was now with DCD Chris in Club Fusion.

 

We rushed over to Club Fusion thinking we would be late now but it turns out everyone else was either confused or chose to do something else instead because even though a few couples used the back tables to play cards, us and a couple from Chile were the only ones who showed up to play trivia. The trivia theme turned out to be sound clips from movies and we all decided to form a team of 4 rather than compete. While the couple from Chile spoke great English, movie sound clips were not their strong suit since everything they watch has Spanish subtitles. Since it was just the four of us, we simply guessed out loud at the answers and Chris told us if we were right or wrong as we went along. We ended up "winning" handheld battery operated fans.

 

When we played Princess Pyramid and didn't win, Dad playfully asked our Brazilian cruise staff member if he had any Princess flashlights tucked away in the podium since that was the only prize that had alluded us (and the carabeener). The dear sweet guy actually looked and on top of that, told Dad to check with whomever was running the current event in Club Fusion to see if they had any. We laughed and told him we were only joking. As we walked away, we relayed our joke question with one of the ladies on the winning team and she tried to hand off her handheld fan to us commenting that they already had won 5 of them.

[Julia’s Journey’s]

Great review:)

 

Thanks for sharing your well written thoughts and experiences and pictures, you really brought the ports alive for us:)

[deb63]

I also enjoyed your review very much. I thank you for taking the time to write it as you gave me 2nd thoughts about the excursions/plans I was leaning toward for our own cruise next summer. And I also loved seeing the Paris Statue of Liberty, I had completely forgotten about her (saw her in a Nicholas Cage movie).

 

Great pics, well written - thank you for sharing your experience.

[seamwoman]

Have so enjoyed your posts as it shows that everyone has different experiences on the same cruise. We did completely different things but had a fabulous time also. Thanks, karen

[deb63]

Thank you for responding to my Princess Belfast Tour question. I came back and reread your TR for anything else I may have forgotten since I read it last month.

 

Did you feel you had plenty of time with their tour of the Belfast Titantic? This is the tour my DD Makayla wants to see the most.

 

Also, we were planning on the walking Titanic tour in Cobh as well. In case we experience it being cancelled as well, can you tell me if there were shops/cafes, etc. close enough to the pier to walk to? Or would you recommend the Blarney Castle tour you took?

 

Thank you for any insight you can share.

[RRFPresident]

Thank you for responding to my Princess Belfast Tour question. I came back and reread your TR for anything else I may have forgotten since I read it last month.

 

Did you feel you had plenty of time with their tour of the Belfast Titantic? This is the tour my DD Makayla wants to see the most.

 

Also, we were planning on the walking Titanic tour in Cobh as well. In case we experience it being cancelled as well, can you tell me if there were shops/cafes, etc. close enough to the pier to walk to? Or would you recommend the Blarney Castle tour you took?

 

Thank you for any insight you can share.

 

Yes, I think we had plenty of time. The tour started with our guide driving us to the memorial statues and wall offering insights on landmarks we passed. Once at the museum itself, we were given the recorded commentary things and sent off on our own to explore at our own pace. We looked at everything, took pics, listened to the commentary, rode the roller coaster style ride, perused the gift shop, and still had time to kill at the end before our arranged meet up time. The only thing we didn't do is stick around to watch the Discovery channel footage of the dive down to the wreckage since we'd already seen it on TV.

 

Inside the museum there is a little cafe where we stopped to get a drink and check wi-fi. We still had time left over to head outside and get pics of the dry dock area before the bus returned. The dry dock area is completely open so you can walk right up and truly be in the footsteps of the Titanic if you choose. Your DD will love this tour!

 

Honestly, when we first saw the tickets for the walking tour, we were leery of how much effort would have been involved. Then we got there and it was clear why no vehicles would have been used. You literally step off the ship right in front of the "Cobh Heritage Centre" with the entrance to the right as the outside looks like a sort of train station built into the hillside. The "tour" most likely would have been "Look across the harbor to the dry dock stands in front of the Titanic museum. Ok now look up at the hillside in front of you where the bath house remnants still stand. Ok now have a little time to go inside the Cobh heritage centre to look around. This concludes your tour."

 

I think you might be better off just getting off early or checking out the center and dock area before getting back on board post museum excursion. We didn't go inside the heritage centre itself as we had shortened time in port and the Blarney Castle excursion in the afternoon that got us back to the ship nearly just in time to leave but otherwise it's more of a take in the historic moment and get pics experience at the port.

 

As far as the Blarney Castle experience goes...personally I only chose it b/c it seemed the thing to do when visiting Ireland. Unless you're really into the experience of kissing the Blarney Stone or a glutton for seeing yet another castle, I could have done without. Yes, the grounds are gorgeous and it's a great life experience anecdote but except for the fact that we wouldn't have known about the bath house if we hadn't asked our Blarney excursion guide, I'd rather have stayed on the ship. You might have a different perspective on the experience as a family with kids.

[deb63]

Thank you so very much!

 

I may go back and research Cobh and plan to do it ourselves. I don't really have any interest in seeing the Blarney Castle. We will be seeing castles/ruins, etc. in other ports. Cobh and Belfast were going to be about the Titanic for our DD Makayla. It might even be an interesting project to get her to research the port with me, and she can direct us based on what she learned.

 

My DDs will be 10 when we go (twins). Although they both like castles, ruins, and the Titanic - they are also very happy shopping.

 

You have been extremely helpful. Thank you.